- The friend's mother who will take anything not nailed down in a hotel room. The management expects you to take the shampoo and soap. However, taking towels, pillows, ashtrays, the batteries from the remote when possible, that's a little extreme.

Oh for goodness sakes.

Yep, she really gripes about hotels that fix it so you can't open the back of the remote to remove the batteries, "Like they don't trust their customers, how rude!"

How many hotels has she been banned from?

Logged

What part of v_e = \sqrt{\frac{2GM}{r}} don't you understand? It's only rocket science!

"The problem with re-examining your brilliant ideas is that more often than not, you discover they are the intellectual equivalent of saying, 'Hold my beer and watch this!'" - Cindy Couture

Babybartfast got to keep the candy (which was wrapped, thank goodness) and one cheap-but-new-looking toy, and the rest are going straight back to Goodwill.

I think you should reconsider going to Goodwill and trash the ratty, smelly toys.

The smoky one and the particularly grungy ones are getting trashed, don't worry Most of the rest of the stuff in the basket is going to Goodwill just because I don't need it in the house - some of it was new still-wrapped things like cardboard easter-themed puzzles (it's not like we need more puzzle pieces in the house) and most of it was not appropriate for a nine-month-old baby to get her hands on. I'll freely admit I'm extra-picky about secondhand stuffed animals - I don't mind grunge when it's our grunge, know what I mean?

My great-great grandfather was legendary for his extreme cheapness (my grandmother called it being 'mean'). She was born in 1905 and was raised by her grandparents from a very young age. One story says that he bought a barrel of apples for the family to eat through the winter. Once they'd gotten past the first layer, most of the apples were rotten, but he refused to throw them away and it fell to my great-great grandmother to find a way to make them edible (lots of applesauce, I think).

Babybartfast got to keep the candy (which was wrapped, thank goodness) and one cheap-but-new-looking toy, and the rest are going straight back to Goodwill.

So they aren't good enough for you or your child, but they're good enough for Goodwill? Why do you think Goodwill would want them?

Agree.

I don't know. Things that are worn or ratty or smoky have no place being donated, but things that would be alright after a wash? I used to be time rich but cash poor and I would pick up slightly dirty but otherwise fine toys at garage sales or wherever and soak them in nappy sanitiser, wash them, hang them on the line in the sun and air to dry and they'd be good as new. Now I have the presence of money and absence of time and don't have the time to a) find and b) clean toys I wouldn't consider it and would pass on toys like that to the next person who may want them.

In other words, just because *I* don't want something, or don't have the time/inclination to return it to a usable state doesn't mean that noone would. I'm not familiar with Goodwill as such so I can't comment as to what they specifically would accept but I don't think that in general things should be trashed just because I, personally, don't have the time and energy to restore them to their former glory.

OTOH when MIL tried to give us some sheets that we didn't want on the basis that they were "too good to donate" - THEN I saw red.

I once read a story of a woman who was in a relationship with a cheapskate. When she wanted a vacation on the beach, he booked a ratty hotel 2 miles away, while they could afford much better. He would be very PA if she wanted to eat at a restaurant instead of a cheap cafee of macdonalds. The death of the relation was when he proposed to try to have a baby...because the baby of his niece had outgrown her babyroom, so he could get the babystuff really cheap!

- The friend's mother who will take anything not nailed down in a hotel room. The management expects you to take the shampoo and soap. However, taking towels, pillows, ashtrays, the batteries from the remote when possible, that's a little extreme.

Oh for goodness sakes.

Yep, she really gripes about hotels that fix it so you can't open the back of the remote to remove the batteries, "Like they don't trust their customers, how rude!"

How many hotels has she been banned from?

None that she has told us about, but I sincerely doubt she would tell us if she was banned. She's very proud of her "thrifty and clever" behavior and doesn't know why we're so wasteful and indulgent with our crazy spending. (i.e. paying for shampoo or towels when we could get them for free) So telling us she'd been banned would ruin her "image" in her mind.

ETA: Another one of her favorite tricks is to find a gift for free for someone else's birthday or Christmas, etc. For example, if there is a gift with purchase for perfume or cosmetics (and she doesn't want to keep it for herself. She's one of those lovely people whose cheapness only extends to items she doesn't want to pay for - like household goods and other people) she will save it for months and give it to my friend for her birthday or Christmas. Or she will save up the tiny trial size samples of lotion, perfume, detergent, etc., that come in the mail or magazines and put them in a regifted basket and say, "Oh, I put together this care package for your birthday!" It might sound like a thoughtful gesture but some of the samples can be years old before she uses them.

It's fascinating to see what people feel they can take from a hotel room. I did often wonder why hotel tv remotes had tape on the back. I'd no idea it was because people would take the batteries . Ehell is educational.

In terms of extreme thrift I had an elderly great-aunt who became paranoid she didn't have enough money and wouldn't put the heating on or the hot water because she thought it was expensive. We had a regular fear of turning up to find her dead of hypothermia. She used to give some interesting presents, ranging from the top of a salad crisper (for reasons we couldn't fathom) to a second hand wok with a lid that didn't fit. The odd thing was she was a wealthy lady who actually could afford to live very comfortably and just wouldn't.

Logged

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.

We refused to dine out with IL's friends. None of these people were hurting financially. One set insisted on buffets and brought plastic bags and would load up. Others would have a melt down if you ordered anything not on the lunch or early bird list.

One BIL was treating everyone to lunch and he was told by the friends that he couldn't order the artichokes because it wasn't on the lunch specials menu. He politely explained that since he was paying he could order what he wanted. You would have thought he wanted to steal the food off their plates! We were taking care of the tip and had to take it out of one pair of hands because he thought it was too much. We had to hand it directly to the waitress that had been run ragged during the lunch.

I've told this story in an earlier thread. A friend's father is just like this. When he takes you out, he presents you with a coupon. He also expects you to order water only. And if you want to order an appetizer (stating that you're paying for it), he gets very upset. I have paid for meals out with them, and he's just as controlling!

One particular uncle thinks a quarter is an excellent tip no matter what the bill total. He's older and I think he's still in the mind-set where a nickel would get you a cup of coffee and a sandwich.

Yeah, I've seen this. Or people who just empty (most of) the change in their pocket. 35 cents, a dollar and 7 cents, whatever. On a $40 tab.

When I was a teenager my family went out to a nice dinner with an older family friend. She offered to pay the tip. When it was done, the tab came to about $60. She pulled a quarter out of her purse and said, "It was worth it!" My parents quietly left a decent tip.

We don't really "do" Easter at our house, but MIL came over with a giant wrapped basket for Babybartfast and Bittybartfast earlier this week so I figured it wouldn't hurt to open it up today. I think she said it was from her MIL (DH's grandmother). It was a beautiful basket, stuffed to the brim . . . with ratty, nasty, cheap stuffed animals. I think she bought a small commercial basket with (cheap) candy in it, then added a bunch of stuffed rabbits and ducks she found at thrift stores or that people left behind at her rental properties and repackaged the whole thing into a bigger basket. Several were grungy and one of them stank of cigarette smoke.

Babybartfast got to keep the candy (which was wrapped, thank goodness) and one cheap-but-new-looking toy, and the rest are going straight back to Goodwill.

Playing devil's advocate here. If most of the stuffed toys were in very bad shape (not to mention smelly), does Goodwill want them? IIRC they end up throwing away a lot of donations due to conditions like this. Honestly, I'd just toss them.

My X was a cheapskate. That's one reason he's an X! He wouldn't spend money on pest control, and we lived in Florida, so we had a roach problem (we were clean - roaches are a fact of life there). I finally had enough, and he grudgingly gave in.

He could also be cruel with his cheapness. One time I was out antiquing with my mom and sister - we were on vacation. I spent $25 on a pretty Victorian bowl. He was very upset with me. His words: "I was going to buy you something, but since you spent that money, now I'm not." Just one more nail in the coffin.